War-torn We Bleed But We Build On Our Blood
by Thousandsmiles
Summary: It all boiled down to one fact: the hundred had a problem with authority.


**I hope you all enjoy this! It's most likely going to be AU when the third season comes out.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own the 100.**

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It all boiled down to one fact: the hundred had a problem with authority. They had after all been criminals. And even if they had been upstanding citizens driven by necessity to do something illegal, the time spent in the Skybox had driven that away. And if even that hadn't done it then the ground certainly had.

After Mt. Weather though, they were brought back to Camp Jaha and they were given places in camp life. And at first they fit in. They seemed to integrate and everything looked like it might work out. But after a few weeks, it became clear that that wasn't going to happen. They tried. That was what hurt Bellamy the most, watching them. They tried. Really, really hard.

But they couldn't help it. They didn't like anyone telling them what to do. They tried to stick to the schedules, but couldn't. They'd act up even though they didn't even know why half the time. They'd complain, that certain things were stupid. On bad days they'd complain that everything was done stupidly. The funny thing was though, even the most troublesome ones would settle down after Bellamy spoke to them and explained why they were doing such and such task and the benefits of doing it in that way ect. But that could only go so far as even he thought some things were just not done as efficient as they could be.

They tried. Really, really hard. But they hated people telling them what to do, unless it was one of their own, one of them who they trusted. Those who had families who had survived were having problems with them too. And Bellamy knew how much it hurt them. They didn't know why, a lot of them, couldn't see why everything set them off so badly, why even the simplest, kindest order, resulted in explosive action. Some of it he knew was from Mt. Weather, but most of it was inherent in their nature. The usual tolerance for authority, not of their choosing, was stripped away though and all that was left were their raw, exposed, nerves. Their ugly problem bared to light. They couldn't hide it, couldn't build back their tolerance in a place that constantly stripped it away.

Bellamy had to do something. He knew what he had to do, but he didn't know if he could pull it off. He needed to take the remaining forty-one from Camp Jaha. He needed to carry them away to someplace where they could actually recover enough to function in a normal society again. Because if he didn't he had no doubt that one of them would snap and lash out. And they'd regret it. He'd seen enough of his people get hurt. He was sick of it.

Finally on a day when Harper and Monroe got into a fistfight with two of the other teenagers, who had survived from the Ark, and came damn near to breaking bone that he put his foot down. He went to Abby and Kane and told them that he was taking his people. No he didn't know where they were going, or how they'd survive but he was taking them because their chances of survival were equally uncertain within the walls of Camp Jaha.

They fought him. Of course they did. He was proposing to take forty-one, high strung, traumatized, delinquent teenagers into the wilds, on the cusp of true winter. If he ever grew to a self respecting adult, a real one, he'd argue with him too. But he knew his people. He knew what had to be done and he knew they could survive it. He would make sure of it.

He remembers little of the entire argument. All he truly knows is that two hours later he's calling the forty-one over and telling them to pack their bags. They're leaving. Whoever wants to stay behind with the families are welcome to do so. No one stays behind.

Raven and Wick join them as they're about to leave. Abby and Kane protest against them leaving but they say they have a right to leave if they wish. The forty-five of them leave and the whole camp watches them. Parents beg their children to stay but they don't. They cry and they hug but they still walk out the gates because they have to and they know it.

They head for the drop ship. It's the only place they know to go to. And it's like coming home. They dump their bags inside the ship and start clearing the ashes out. It's hard work and most of them are coughing by the time they get most of it cleared away. The skeletons of the Grounders they inter into the earth with Lincoln officiating the ceremony. The ashes, they collect and scatter into the river as a burial of sorts. They see grounder scouts but they do not harm them.

Soon they are setting up the tents and lighting the fire. And it's like settling back home.

It becomes apparent thought, that first night, that they cannot stay there. Winter is almost upon them and the nights are already becoming cold. They can't stay here. They'd catch their deaths. They can't go back to Cam Jaha though, they know that too. They would never survive a close quartered winter. They'd go insane.

There is only one other place that they can go to that Bellamy can think of. He doesn't think the others will be able to stand it though. But on the third night, Raven and Wick come to him and he sees in their faces that they have to leave soon. They know he knows too and they leave without a word. He breaks the idea to them and Octavia the next day. They aren't enthusiastic about it. But from a logical standpoint they all agree.

That night is the worst. Jasper screams at him for nearly half an hour, before storming back to his tent. Some of the others cower; others just have dislike twisting their faces. It's Harper though, strangely enough who stands up, Harper who says that she's not afraid, Harper who says that she'd been through worse to survive, Harper who says she's strong enough to face up to her demons, to her fears. Harper who still limps, Harper whose bones ache when there's going to be rain, whose bones are no doubt aching in this cold, Harper whose bones will never be pain-free again.

Miller votes yes next. Monty follows, the hardness his face acquired from the mountain, shining out starkly in the firelight. Monroe says yes next because Monroe had long failed to be afraid, truly afraid, of anything. And the others follow. Jasper is the only one who says nothing. But in the morning he looks at Bellamy and gives a subdued nod.

So to the mountain they go. They brace themselves for the worst and they find it. The bodies are still there, rotting, burning from the radiation still streaming inside. It's a mess. A horrible, truthful mess.

Jasper takes Maya's body to bury. Monty takes the lady who hid him and buries her. The rest of them follow suit, burying those who had hidden them, giving them a chance to survive. It's strangely therapeutic, burying the dead, making peace, whispering apologies, shedding tears for those who helped.

Bellamy takes Dante's body and buries him too, because he had helped them once. Jasper helps because Dante had tried to help, had been going to release them, even if he did turn, he had been a good man, only what he had to do for his people.

The others piles up the bodies of the rest of the people of Mt. Weather. They were going to burn them but Bellamy stopped them. They protested but he shook his head firmly and said:

"We'll bury them in the ground we stole from them. The ground was their legacy too. Let them have it in death, if they couldn't have it in life."

So they buried them, all of them. And somewhere along the way they learned what Bellamy had been hoping they'd learn, that he'd been hoping he would learn too: to be the better men, to try to be the better men whenever, however they could., to be honorable when they couldn't be better.

So they buried their enemies and lay them to rest without vengeance, and while not with forgiveness, at least without burning, thriving hate.

But while they had been somewhat prepared with dealing with dead of Mt. Weather, they were entirely not prepared to deal with their own dead, still left over in Level Five, after their bone marrow had been extracted.

Bellamy buried those himself. He refused anyone's help, ordered them away when they wouldn't leave because this was his burden to bear. If Clarke bore the guilt of their success, he would bear the guilt of their failure. It was fitting, equal. She would never know about these bodies, never know the state of them, never image the pain they went through, never torture herself with imaging their screams, because she had come too late.

He buried their bodies and memorized their names. The others added things to their graves, cried apologies, whispered messages.

They stripped Mt. Weather of everything that spoke of its former inhabitants. Level five they sealed off because no one could stand it there. Raven and Wick got the backup generator working. They occasionally talked to Camp Jaha via radio, telling them that they were alright. They went hunting to stock up on their food supply and Monty got the aquaponics of working again. With help and some experimentation, they soon got a good crop started. With help they resealed the front door as much as they good and set about plugging whatever leaks they could find to stop the drafty, freezing winter air.

Bellamy worried about Clarke, being out in that weather but she was smart, he knew, she'd find a way. And if she couldn't she'd come home.

It was almost three weeks before thy finally settled down into Mt. Weather. They worked out the schedules and rotations of people which would have been a nightmare if Jasper hadn't taken control of the whole thing. Bellamy had been worried about letting him do it but he handled it all without a hitch, even when he had to liaise with both him and Monty. Somehow that worried Bellamy even more but here was nothing he could do about it now, though he resolved to keep an eye on the situation.

They soon settled into life at the mountain. No one really complained, there were no real fights, just little spats that were leftover from their time at Camp Jaha. Bellamy's people were finally beginning to heal.

It was rough though. Sometimes being in the mountain was too much and they'd scream or wake up ready to fight anyone in their way. Sometimes they'd just cry, in perfect silence, and then they'd wipe away the tears and move on. Bellamy didn't know whether to be proud of them or if to let his heart break at that. In the end he did both.

Raven and Wick had to take almost fortnightly trips back to Camp Jaha to ensure everything was working there. They trained a few people on what to do as best as they could but they always came home to the mountain.

Octavia and Lincoln trained people how to fight properly. It was welcome. Too many of them had felt helpless and they were determined to never feel that way again. Miller showed people how to pick locks and from then on they all carried little picks on them in the event that they were ever chained to a wall again , so they would have a chance to get out.

Lincoln drew. He drew them, and he drew what they told him about.

Bellamy talked. He recited as much as he could remember about the storied his mother had read to him. And they listened, snuggling around to their friends, hot cups of something or the other, or Monty's moonshine, which had definitely improved, and listened, enchanted as if they were little kids again.

And Bellamy wondered when it had gone from 'his sister, his responsibility' to 'his people, his responsibility.' He wouldn't change it for the world though.

Winter passed and still there was no sign of Clarke.

As soon as it was warm enough, they headed back to the drop ship. They expanded the walls, and started to build real homes. Real wood huts. They still kept the tents up though. Tents were a part of their life now and they wouldn't have it any other way. They cleaned out the drop ship and stacked their food there. They made trips back to the mountain to harvest the crop in the aquaponics but that was about it. The drop ship was their summer home.

People slept better here, where the nightmares weren't as scary, weren't so much. They acted better when they free, out in the open air, like they were meant to be. They laughed more, and loosed up, and the shadows hanging around their shoulders began to fall off. They worked hard and they were happy.

Camp Jaha came to visit, bringing worried parents with Abby and Kane. There were a lot of tearful reunions and catching up to do. Bellamy watching them all, smiled. But he knew, his people had healed a lot, perhaps healed as best as they ever could for some, but he doubted that they could ever go back to living in Camp Jaha. This wildness, this freeness was in their bones. They were never and would never be tamed. And they would answer only to a call they thy chose. And that call, that authority was Bellamy and it was Clarke. Camp Jaha was no place for them, not in the long term.

So when the parents left the kids stayed.

They made it through summer. And on the last day of Summer, on the cusp of Autumn they celebrated. It was to bring the new season in, it was celebrate their hard work, it was to celebrate being alive. They lit a bonfire and pulled out all the moonshine.

"To Summer for being warm," Bellamy said, holding his cup of moonshine, "And to Autumn. To us seeing another season, when all we had was the night, with the stars, moon and sun but nothing else except the dark of space, nothing else except each other, and that is the best thing we've ever brought down. To a new season, to another day that we're alive, to each other!" They toasted and drank and then the dancing started.

Drums were all that they had for instruments but it was enough. Bellamy sat on the outskirts still nursing his one small cup of moonshine, along with all the others on watch who stood backs to the festivities, eyes searching the forest. But they weren't' neglected though. Every two hours the shift changed, and others took their place. These too, like Bellamy only nursed one small drink. It was but a small cost though, to allow this fun and revelry, this happiness, that hadn't been there since the first day they had stepped on the ground.

Bellamy grinned at Raven and Wick who were both totally drunk and were doing embarrassing dance moves. Jasper, who leaned next to him, his shoulder comfortably resting on Bellamy's chest grinned at them too. Things had lightened between them, ever since Jasper and Bellamy had had a shout out, that had gone on for a whopping four hours before Jasper had broken down in Bellamy's arms sobbing helplessly. Ever since then he had stopped closing himself off from people and now activity sought company out. He was more clingy than usual but no one grudged him and no one thought it made him look weak. He wasn't weak, if anything Jasper had gotten more hard, but he wasn't shy about demanding comfort of company anymore because life was too short to be embarrassed about it and he never saw it as a weakness anyway. They were stronger together and he knew it. The whole camp had instead deiced to adopt his attitude.

Jasper and Monty were on speaking terms again. It wasn't like it used to be but there was promise, hope and that made it okay.

It was the last watch of the night and most of the party had wound down. Most of them were falling asleep on each other. Those still awake were murmuring softly to each other. It was peaceful, happy and home. Then there was movement in the trees coming towards them. All the sentries were instantly alert wondering if an enemy force had decided that this was the perfect time to attack.

There was a tense moment and then a familiar sounding voice said "No one invited me to the party? I'm not that much of a party pooper."

And she came out from the trees, hair gleaming the light.

There was a moment of stunned silence and then Bellamy said, "Welcome back Princess and the party's almost over, where've you been?"

"Around," she said, walking through the gate. She looked around and sighed and then smiled up at him, "But now I'm home."

"Yes," he smiled back at her, "Now we're all home."

And they were.

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 _ **R &R Please! Reviews make me happy!**_


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